Influence

Influence rules the world. Everyday each of us is being influenced one way or the other. Our choices are based on influence. Advertisements are designed to influence our choices so we can buy what is being advertised. Politicians crisscross the country all in a bid to influence voters to vote for them. Businessmen influence customers to patronize them. Parents influence their children to live right. Mentors influence their protégées to achieve giant strides through their counsel and input.  Everywhere we go influence is being peddled to shape our choices. Influence is especially critical to us because it travels on the vehicle of relationships and since human beings are social animals they are subject to and susceptible to being influenced and to influence others. Each time we interact and relate with people directly or indirectly we are engaged in one form of influence or the other.

Influence simply means the effect or impact a person has on another person. Influence is creating an impression on others. Influence is the capacity to impress others – to make them create, formulate or have certain opinions. Influence is creating an impression which shapes their choices, decisions and actions which in turn affects their outcomes.

Influence is the force that determines people’s pattern of behavior. Influence determines people’s thinking patterns. It determines people’s spending patterns. It determines people’s convictions.  Influence determines people’s actions. Influence is affecting lives.

Every human being has the capacity to influence. We can all have an effect and impact on people’s lives. We all have the ability to create impressions in people’s minds. We all have the innate ability to alter, modify and help people formulate opinions. Every human being is an influential person.

The problem is many people either don’t know the power of influence they possess or don’t know how to develop and use it.

We must learn to maximize our ability to influence.  Every relationship we get involved in must never be taken lightly. No matter the kind of relationship whether casual, serious, distant , electronic, face- to – face, in writing, speech or occasional we must ensure that we are exercising the right influence and also ensure we are not being negatively influenced.

What we do with the power of influence we have in our relationships is dependent on us. The impact and result of our influence will depend on we doing certain things. We must ensure that our influence is positive and not negative. Our influence must be tailored for the good of people and the advancement of society. Our influence must always leave people better than when they first meet us.

If we develop our influence well our lives can have greater impact than we ever imagine. We can have local, national or global influence. Our influence can affect people, families , nations and continents.

Influence is a tool that we all have to have our lives extend and reach beyond ourselves. We need to understand that we are no ordinary people. We can and we should all be doing some things consciously to make other people’s lives better. We must understand that without exerting the right influence our lives will simple ordinary. Any life that will count must be a life of influence.

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